12
didn't go. Anyway, when he finished high school the war
was on and he was seventeen years of age, and he tried
to volunteer for the Officer's Training Corps, but was
turned down. Then on November 11, 1918, he registered
for the draft. He was eighteen years of age then.
But he didn't go to college, and I remember hearing my father
say later on that my brother just decided he would stay on
in the business, which might or might not have been a
good thing for him. He told me later on in life that
if he'd gone to college he would have studied chemistry.
But I wanted to go to college, and itwas the year when
everybody was thinking about going to college. Nine of
the boys in my class, and that was about almost half of
them--I think there were two of them who didn't go to
college--but nine of us went to the University of Florida.
I was the only one to graduate out of nine boys from Bay
County, class of '23.
P: Now, you came to Gainesville then in September of 1923?
L: That,s right.
P: Was this the first time you had seen Gainesville?
L: No, that spring I had gone down there with out high school
principal, Dr. [Glenn] Ballord Simmons, who later was Dean
at the University. He had taken a group of us down there
to the university, to the track meet, in April, I believe
it was, in 1923. We left Panama City about 9:30 in the
morning in a brand new Ford car. We crossed the river on
a ferry at Chattahoochee and the car was loaded--we had to
help push the car up the hill. We got here in the late
afternoon and had supper and started to Gainesville. To
make a long story short, we got to Gainesville about
noon the next day.
P: When you say here, you meant that you had gotten to Tallahassee
that afternoon.
L: Yes, and we stopped two or three hours here.
P: You spent the night here?
L: No, we travelledall night.